Research will continue on naturally occurring food toxicants of importance to both animals and man. Toxins under consideration come from fungal contaminants of foods, from normal metabolites of food plants, and from stress metabolites of plants induced by mechanical, biological, and chemical injury. The principal toxins to be studied are lung- and liver-toxic, 3-substituted furans which include stress metabolites of the sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas; normal metabolites of the purple mint plant, Perilla frutescens; and certain synthetic congeners. Emphasis will be placed on the molecular mechanisms of toxicity including defining structural features of the toxins that determine principal target organs and specific pathological responses in susceptible animals. Collaborative efforts with outside investigators are designed to determine the susceptibility of large animal species to 4-ipomeanol and perilla ketone and to compare the histopathological reactions to the respective intoxications. In the area of mycotoxins, emphasis will be placed on the neurotoxic agents causing recent outbreaks of neurological disease of livestock in the state of Tennessee. These include novel mycotremorgens and an unidentified toxic metabolite(s) of Fusarium moniliforme which causes leucoencephalomalacia in equines.